Sunnydale Wholesale Beauty Supply, Chapter 33 Watch out now, take care Beware of falling swingers Dropping all around you The pain that often mingles In your fingertips The next morning, Jack was giving her peculiar looks as he set out the muesli. "Hey, don't look at me, you're the vegetarian," she said. "I'm gonna get an Egg McMuffin, the only perfect food." "How come you didn't tell me about the snakes in the cafeteria?" he asked. She blinked. "Well, I had already eaten my lunch and was in the computer lab. Besides, snakes? There's always some damn thing happening at that high school. I mean, a fake cop shot Oz Osbourne on Career Day, and the janitor and a teacher were shooting at each other or something earlier this week. Snakes," she concluded, finding a cold Dr. Pepper in the refrigerator, "are a mere bagatelle." Jack frowned. "Ozzie Osbourne was here in Sunnydale? And someone shot him?" Sunny rolled her eyes. At school, someone said, "Hey, did you hear about the swim team guys? A serial killer is kidnapping them or something." "Figures," Sunny said, getting her books out of her locker. But nothing was weirder than getting called in to see Principal Snyder. He sat there for some time, just glaring at her. She returned his stare, interested. "I've just signed off on your exchange-student request," he finally said, angrily. "I can't say I'm thrilled at losing one of our few students who doesn't cause trouble." "Thank you?" she hazarded. "There's also your unusual aptitude test. It seems that you tested high to be a philosopher and a hairdresser." "A philosopher?" she asked. "Are there many job openings for that? And what happened to Mrs. Marcus, the guidance counselor?" "She left, so it's up to me to review all rising junior aptitude scores," Snyder said importantly. "It's a shame that the school board makes you do her work on top of your own," Sunny said, in the sympathetic voice she'd heard Meena use on Sno'be demons. "And there's all the sexual harassment protocols and guidelines to follow, when you have to deal with girl students, too, isn't there? Doors open, female counselor for the girls. It must be stressful." He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. The door behind her chair opened, and it was the school secretary. "Mr. Snyder, we can't find the school nurse anywhere!" Sunny picked up her backpack and eased around the woman and out of the principal's office. So she wasn't surprised in the least bit to find out that the swimming team's winning streak disappeared, with most of the team. "Xander looked totally hot in his Speedo," Cordelia Chase said to Harmony, as they were walking down the hall in front of Sunny. Damn. She may have to have her third eye cleansed. Nothing unusual, therefore, until she got home and found Meena sitting in the apartment, waiting for Jack to get back from a delivery. "What's wrong?" Sunny asked, startled. "My father died," Meena said. The thing was, Sunny kept forgetting both that Meena was a demon and that she was a Hindu demon. She and Jack went to the Chatterjis' house. Meena's brothers had shaved their heads in grief. Meena and her mother wore white cotton saris with black borders, and out of respect, Sunny wore a long white skirt and long sleeved blouse. She didn't know Meena's family very well, since they didn't really approve of Meena being with Jack. Jack and Sunny sat at the back, listening to the readings from the Upanishads. These were people, to her eyes, but Buffy and the librarian and her friends just thought demon, demon, demon, and that they were all evil. The family had cremated Mr. Chatterji on the beach, building their own ghat, Jack had told Sunny earlier. "They have to do it right away. And, since it's Sunnydale, they didn't want to take a chance on the locals finding out that the family's Lakshmi demons." "On the beach?" Sunny asked. "Wow." "Yeah, where there was a beach party, so the sheriff's office wouldn't think anything weird about a bunch of burnt wood. They'll take his ashes back to India. Well, when Meena goes with you, actually." Now Meena was singing the Tagore hymn again, "Uth, jaag, musafir," as musicians---demon? Human? played the tabla and harmonium. "Arise traveller, the sky is light," was the only words Sunny recognized. She looked around, half expecting the air to feel heavier, for her to be in the other Sunnydale with Angel. Mr. Chatterji had given her glass wrist bangles once, when Sunny had gone home with Meena. They all petted her, told Meena how well behaved she was. Did they see something magic about her, what, the magic signature Mr. Giles had called it? There was something very odd that Jack was sending her away from the vampires of Sunnydale, to live with a demon family in Ladakh. Jack was listening to the music, his face sad. ("Mrs. Chatterji tried to throw herself on the funeral pyre," Jack had said in the car. "The brothers and Meena stopped her.") Sunny wondered what kind of funeral her father had had, in LA. He had gone so completely from her life, that hearing about his car accident hadn't really registered. Her mother certainly wouldn't have thrown herself on any ghats. Tossed Sunny onto it, if she'd get the trust fund. Really, the only way Sunny could understand it was that her mom had got pregnant with Sunny to trap Dad. But he didn't stay trapped, and then he finally got away from her. Sunny picked up her copy of the Upanishads: As the skin of a snake is sloughed onto an anthill, so does the mortal body fall; but the Self, freed from the body, merges in Brahman, infinite life, eternal light. Her father, Meena's father, Miss Calendar and the waitress at the Bronze, all freed from the body. She supposed it was what she was trying to do, the other night, on the roof. Free herself from the body and be done, but of course, she wasn't done, was she? Or was she? Was she really herself, poor Sunny under Airmed's spell, or was she Airmed, herself, who kept coming back and back until she could find Angel? Sunny looked at her hands. They didn't seem to belong to herself any more. She flipped open the book again, and read, Living in darkness, immature, unaware of any higher good or goal, they fall again and again into the sea. Well, that was helpful. Instead of staying with her mother, Meena came home with them. Sunny didn't ask why, but Meena said, "The doctor is going to give my mother a sedative. My sisters-in-law are there." There was something unspoken, something about Meena not being married or because she basically lived with Jack. Sunny sat in the back seat, and minded her own business. Saturday night. The shop was closed. Jack had George Harrison on the CD player upstairs, one of his Indian-influenced albums. All when dinosaurs stalked the earth and Jack had long hair and listened to vinyl. Meena sat down on the couch, and Sunny went and put the kettle on for her. "We'll go to the Ganges and put Daddy's ashes in," Meena said to her. "It's actually a very peaceful, beautiful thing. It's what we all come down to." "Yeah," Sunny said dubiously. Ashes. Vampires turned to dust. Humans and demons turned to ashes. So, simply put, Jack and Meena wanted Sunny to be ashes, rather than dust. She was rapidly wondering if it made any difference, in the end. Beware of darkness